Two years after a museum dedicated to the Tiananmen Square crackdown closed in Hong Kong, a new exhibition on the 1989 massacre has opened in New York.
Manhattan’s new display, part of the June 4th Memorial Museum, is believed to be the world’s only exhibition on the Tiananmen Square protests. It memorialises those killed when Chinese troops suppressed pro-democracy protestors in Beijing.
“We’re much more than a museum, more than any museum, because this is a symbol of defiance,” David Yu, the executive director of the group that organised the exhibition, told the New York Times.
Zhou Fengsuo, an exiled survivor of the massacre who helped plan the display and contributed his collection, told the publication: “It is a privilege to be the protector of such sacred memory, the sacred fire for freedom.”
“This museum is not only for history, it’s also for present day and for the future,” said Wang Dan, a leader of the student protests in 1989 who is behind the new venue.
The display includes newspaper clippings, letters written to jailed protestors, a bloodstained shirt worn by lieutenant and military journalist Jiang Lin, a tent used by protesters, and items worn by one of the soldiers.
Other items on view include a bloodstained banner used by a teacher to cover the bullet wounds of a student protester, and artwork by a Hong Kong artist showing the death of the youngest known victim of the massacre, 9-year-old Lu Peng.
The Chinese Communist party (CCP) has long sought to eliminate any remembrance of the 1989 massacre. In June 2021, the Tiananmen museum in Hong Kong was closed down.
The same year, the authorities in Hong Kong removed a statue that memorialised those killed. The CCP has also done away with 4 June gatherings in mainland China and Hong Kong.
New display on the 1989 massacre
Estimates of the Tiananmen massacre death toll range from hundreds to thousands, but the New York exhibition includes a banner with 200 names.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington told the Guardian: “The Chinese government has already drawn a clear conclusion on the political disturbance in the late 1980s.
“The great achievements we made in the past 70 years since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China speak volumes about the right development path we have chosen with the endorsement by our people.
“The Chinese people will continue to advance along the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
Lead image credit: Zhou Fengshuo / Facebook
